Stunning: ICE buses full of Venezuelan migrants heading for deportation flights turn around as SCOTUS ruling drops
At least 28 migrants from Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Bluebonnet Detention Center in Anson were bound for Abilene Airport when they suddenly made a U-turn as legal battles raged in Washington over the Trump administration’s use of an 18th-century wartime law to deport migrants without a trial, NBC News footage shows.
The buses, followed by a large motorcade of at least 18 police cruisers from multiple agencies, unexpectedly drove past the airport and hauled it back to the detention center.
As the bus was heading to the airport, US District Judge James Boasberg heard an emergency request from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) for a temporary restraining order requiring 30 days’ notice from the Trump administration before any of their clients were deported under the Alien Enemies Act after learning they had been issued removal notices.
After ACLU lawyers informed Boasberg just before the hearing that buses were heading to the airport right then to deport the migrants in Texas, the judge asked a Justice Department lawyer to ensure no flights were deporting migrants from Bluebonnet under the 1798 law, according to NBC News.
Boasberg ultimately denied the ACLU’s request, but the Supreme Court paused the deportation flights in a 7-2 emergency order just after midnight early Saturday.